PRO 18

Proverbs 18:8

WEB

The words of a gossip are like dainty morsels: they go down into a person’s innermost parts.

BSB

The words of a gossip are like choice morsels that go down into the inmost being.

KJV

The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Matthew Henry

Verse 8

Proverbs 18:8

Tale-bearers are those who secretly carry stories from house to house, which perhaps have some truth in them, but are secrets not fit to be told, or are basely misrepresented, and false colours put upon them, and are all told with design to blast men's reputation, to break their friendship, to make mischief between relations and neighbours, and set them at variance. Now the words of such are here said to be, 1. Like as when men are wounded (so the margin reads it); they pretend to be very much affected with the miscarriages of such and such, and to be in pain for them, and pretend that it is with the greatest grief and reluctance imaginable that they speak of them. They look as if they themselves were wounded by it, whereas really they rejoice in iniquity, are fond of the story, and tell it with pride and pleasure. Thus their words seem; but they go down as poison into the innermost parts of the belly, the pill being thus gilded, thus sugared. 2. As wounds (so the text reads it), as deep wounds, deadly wounds, wounds in the innermost parts of the belly; the venter medius vel infimus - the middle or lower belly, the thorax or the abdomen, in either of which wounds are mortal. The words of the tale-bearer wound him of whom they are spoken, his credit and interest, and him to whom they are spoken, his love and charity. They occasion sin to him, which is a wound to the conscience. Perhaps he seems to slight them, but they would insensibly, by alienating his affections from one he ought to love.

Hebrew interlinear

H1697

דָּבָרdâbâr/daw-baw'/

n-m — word, matter, spoken, thing, cause

Derivation: from 1696;

a word; by implication, a matter (as spoken of) or thing; adverbially, a cause

KJV: act, advice, affair, answer, × any such (thing), because of, book, business, care, case, cause, certain rate, chronicles, commandment, × commune(-ication), concern(-ing), confer, counsel, dearth, decree, deed, × disease, due, duty, effect, eloquent, errand, (evil favoured-) ness, glory, harm, hurt, iniquity, judgment, language, lying, manner, matter, message, (no) thing, oracle, × ought, × parts, pertaining, please, portion, power, promise, provision, purpose, question, rate, reason, report, request, × (as hast) said, sake, saying, sentence, sign, so, some (uncleanness), somewhat to say, song, speech, × spoken, talk, task, that, × there done, thing (concerning), thought, thus, tidings, what(-soever), wherewith, which, word, work.

דָּבָר

n.m — speech

דָּבָר 1439 n.m. speech, word

I. sg. speech, discourse, saying, word, as the sum of that which is spoken

II. sg. saying, utterance, sentence, as a section of a discourse

III. sg. a word, words

IV. sg. matter, affair, thing about which one speaks

H5372

נִרְגָּןnirgân/neer-gawn'/

v — slanderer

Derivation: from an unused root meaning to roll to pieces;

a slanderer

KJV: talebearer, whisperer.

רָגַן

vb — murmur

רָגַן vb. murmur, whisper

1. murmur (rebelliously)

Qal murmurers;

Niph. and they murmured in their tents

2. whisper (maliciously), backbite, slander:

Niph. backbiter

H3859

לָהַםlâham/law-ham'/

v — burn in, rankle

Derivation: a primitive root;

properly, to burn in, i.e. (figuratively) to rankle

KJV: wound.

לָהַם

vb — swallow greedily

[לָהַם] vb. swallow greedily;—only Hithp.

H1992

הֵםhêm/haym/

p — they

Derivation: or (prolonged) הֵמָּה; masculine plural from 1931;

they (only used when emphatic)

KJV: it, like, × (how, so) many (soever, more as) they (be), (the) same, × so, × such, their, them, these, they, those, which, who, whom, withal, ye.

הֵ֫מָּה

pron — they

הֵ֫מָּה and הֵם (without appreciable distinction in usage, except prob. in so far as the longer or shorter form was better adapted to the rhythm of particular sentences) pron. 3 pl. masc. they

H3381

יָרַדyârad/yaw-rad'/

v — descend, go downwards, fall, bring down

Derivation: a primitive root;

to descend (literally, to go downwards; or conventionally to a lower region, as the shore, a boundary, the enemy, etc.; or figuratively, to fall); causatively, to bring down (in all the above applications)

KJV: × abundantly, bring down, carry down, cast down, (cause to) come(-ing) down, fall (down), get down, go(-ing) down(-ward), hang down, × indeed, let down, light (down), put down (off), (cause to, let) run down, sink, subdue, take down.

יָרַד

vb — come down

יָרַד 380 vb. come or go down, descend

Qal 306

1.

a. come or go down

b. go down (usu. from mountain or hill-country into plain), to battle

c. go down to (acc.) threshing-floor

d. go down (abs.) from Palestine to Egypt

e. from Jerusalem

f. from altar

g. go down

h. = sink, in water

i. go down to She’ôl

j. fig. going down (dissolving) in tears

k. = be prostrated

2. of divine manifestations: descend

3. of inanimate things

Hiph.

1. cause to come or go down

a. bring down

b. send down rain = cause to flow down

c. = lay prostrate to (acc.) threshing-floor

d. bring down to She’ôl

2. take down (from cart)

3. let down

Hoph.

1. be brought down

2. be taken down

H2315

חֶדֶרcheder/kheh'-der/

n-m — apartment

Derivation: from 2314;

an apartment (usually literal)

KJV: ((bed) inner) chamber, innermost(-ward) part, parlour, south, × within.

חֶ֫דֶר

n.m — chamber

חֶ֫דֶר n.m. chamber, room

H990

בֶּטֶןbeṭen/beh'-ten/

n-f — belly, womb, bosom, body

Derivation: from an unused root probably meaning to be hollow;

the belly, especially the womb; also the bosom or body of anything

KJV: belly, body, as they be born, within, womb.

בֶּ֫טֶן

n.f — belly

בֶּ֫טֶן n.f. belly, body, womb

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